Remembering Sister Catherine Long before I met them in person, I had a long distance relationship with Sister Catherine, Sister Imelda, Sister Martina, and Brother Celba through the postal service. My father, Martin, was their older brother. It was a Mullahy ritual that each one of us (myself and 4 siblings) had to send each of them a letter for Christmas and for Easter. It was my father’s request and my mother’s responsibility and we did it. This process went on for many years. There would be a return letter from them to us and my father proudly read them to us wherein they explained their devotion to their missionary work. Years went by and we met Sister Catherine in a new way. In 1969, Sister Catherine wrote to all of us (the Watertown Mullahys) and asked us if we would help her fulfill a promise that she had made to a poor parish priest in Marseille, France. He wanted to come to the United States and she had raised the funds for him to fly to Boston and she now wanted to execute the trip. Her request was for us to host him and “show him a good time”. Of course, we said yes and he spent 6 weeks amongst all of us. He stayed with John and I for a quite a while. I had just given birth to Colleen, our first child. Father Jean baptized her. From this experience, I began to understand not only that Sister Catherine dreamed big dreams, but also had the unique ability to carry out these dreams. In her own quiet yet strong way, she was a “mover and shaker”. When our second daughter was born, we decided who better to name her after Sister Catherine. 4 decades later, Mary Catherine still works to live to the Sister Catherine ‘way’. More years went by. One day my mother called to tell me that Sister Catherine, Sister Imelda, and Brother Celba were coming to visit. It feels just like yesterday that the three of them came to our house, sat down at our dinner table with our 6 young rambunctious children and they held us all in rapture. The method, perfected by Sister Catherine, was storytelling. She told stories about the past and the present… about Bushfield, England, and Australia. By designed story, she introduced us to cousins that we had not met. We knew them all before we met them. Sister Catherine was the architect of the stories. Brother Celba and Sister Imelda contributed much humor and details. It was a stunning experience for us and I then came to understand the magic of her ways..she could spin a story that told truth by combining beauty with reality. The legacy of that first visit was a long lovely relationship with all three of them and with Sister Catherine for many years beyond Brother and Sister. Five of the six Riley children visited Sister Catherine in Blanchardstown as well as Brother Celba in Dublin. John and I visited Sister many times over the years and each one was special. We cannot forget the first time that we went to the convent in Blanchardstown. All of the sisters were waiting for us there. Sister Catherine had brought out “the spirits”. We all sat down and Sister wanted a song fest. Each of the sisters belted out their county song. We then all sang traditional Irish songs and to their surprise I knew them all. My father sang all those songs all my young life. There are so many wonderful stories created by Sister Catherine. When Sheelah was getting married, we called Sister to see if she would like to come. We told her we were putting on a deck to our beach house and it was called the Sister Catherine deck. She knew the beach house because we had taken her there when she had visited us and she loved how it reminded her of the shore line in Ireland. Without hesitation, she said she would come. She arrived and one of the first questions to us was “Where is the deck named after me?” Every morning and evening, she would go out there and pray, quite pleased that the deck was her deck. She loved it, simple but with a commanding view of shore life. In the late 80's Sister Catherine wrote a letter to my brother Bill. She told him that he was one of her favorite nephews and she had a “dying wish”. She wanted to go to Australia to visit her nephews and their families and she had chosen Bill to take her. She also told him that if he could not do that, would he ask her other favorite, John Riley. We have laughed forever over that request. First, was the unanswered question, who was the favorite? Second, who was taking who? …Bill taking Sister Catherine or Sister Catherine taking Bill. Of course, we all knew the answer. Bill, who never took a vacation, took 3 weeks off and went with her. I wish he were here to relay the details of the story. She knew the bus drivers, pilots, taxi drivers, anyone who could contribute to the journey for her. They were treated like royalty in Australia. This story has a wonderful ending. A couple of weeks after Sister Catherine left, Bill met one of his business clients. The client told Bill an interesting story. He said he flew to Dublin recently and had met a Sister. She engaged him in conversation and in the midst of this, he shared with her that he had not been going to church. She urged him to go back to Sunday Mass and made him promise to do this. He then added that in midst of the conversation, she asked the hostess if they had “Hennessey” offered in this flight. Bill’s client was totally impressed with her and Bill said to him, “That’s my aunt and we have just returned from Australia”. He said, “how do you know this?” To which Bill replied, “It is too coincidental since my aunt, Sister Catherine, is a religious Sister is returning to Dublin and likes Hennessey!” One time when we visited Dublin, we wanted to take Sister Catherine and Brother Celba out to lunch someplace that they would like to go. Sister Catherine immediately suggested the Gresham Hotel in Dublin. We met Brother there and had a great lunch. She then said that she would like to see what the rooms looked like. She sent me (and I went) to ask if we could see the accommodations. The Gresham replied ”no unless we were going to book a night”. I went back and told Sister. She then said, “Okay, Let’s go check out the Ladies Rooms. That is the real indicator of what is going on.” I never forgot that perspective. When my 5 daughters were looking for a place to hold a wedding reception, I would say, “Sister Catherine says, check out the Ladies Rooms and you will the kind of place this is.” Oh so many wonderful memories, we cannot roll back time. John and I are grateful for all that Sister gave to us: being generous, wise, caring, beautiful, funny, strategic, wry, prayerful, God centered… All of these attributes and more. Thank you Sister Catherine. We will meet again in heaven. We are counting on your being there to make sure the gates are open. Love, The Rileys Joan, John and family